


Petals on Piano Keys

by XrosaryX



Category: The Caligula Effect (Video Game), The Caligula Effect Overdose (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Siblings, Brother-Sister Relationships, Gen, Half-Siblings, The female protagonist goes by the name Riko.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-13
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-04-24 10:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19171630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XrosaryX/pseuds/XrosaryX
Summary: Music and wisps of flower petals scattered around. He remembers her clinging to him with the scent of flowers as he plays. Together...They are still together.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING pertaining to the game! This game is addicting as heck and dang it there needs to be more stories for it!!

The girl is a first year  ~~for whatever number of times she's been through this repetitive cycle~~  and she was usually perched on the edge of one of the benches in the courtyard. If not sitting, she was standing around the stone bordered land behind the bench. There's nothing particularly interesting about the spot Ritsu found of interest, at first. 

Then again Ritsu didn't notice many things before, but he started to now.

It was as if realizing Mobius wasn't real made him take in the small details he never paid attention to. His sight noticing the wrong of their 'reality' and become guarded when he could see the bursts of Mobius becoming unstable before a Digihead popped up to attack. The blur of a glitch like mask settling over others, how some areas were blocked off oddly and how sometimes areas he thought he knew were suddenly different. He feels a bit sore on having to run around the school just to gain access to one door into a hallway when Kensuke was still a Musician.

Being aware had truly changed his perspective.

Such as now whenever he passed through the courtyard of the school, his eyes would drift over to where the girl always was.

If she was sitting her head was down, staring into a notebook. Her fingers occasionally combed through her light brown hair as she read. If she wasn't sitting on her usual bench, she was walking around the perimeter behind the bench. Sometimes she was empty handed and often her fingers were wringing against each other as she walked. Other times she was holding a watering can, both her hands holding onto it tightly as she slowly walked.

The plot of land behind her usual bench was always in full bloom when he finally had a chance to peer at it. Roses, tulips, daffodils, daisies, sunflowers, poppies...Flowers of all kinds making a garden in that particular spot. No other places on the campus was like that and the flowers behind where she sat created an odd secret garden that stood out against the usual coloring of the school. He would eye those flowers, but eventually his eyes would go back to just stare at the girl.

It was odd how his attention kept driftimg back to her. He didn't pay much attention to the others in the school except those in the Go-Home Club. Some classmates he did speak with to listen to their troubles as Aria had recommended him to do. A few others he helped if he felt he had time to. Yet afterwards he never bothered in sticking around them and only messaged them on occasion.

"Does anyone know who that girl is?"

The question seemed to startle everyone in the music room when he had returned from his food run, "...What girl?"

"There's a girl in the courtyard that tends to the flowers," he could feel his face start to twitch as he took in how everyone was staring at him. He moved forward to dump the bag of snacks on the table before settling down into a chair, "I've only noticed her recently, but she's always tending to that garden and there's no where else on campus that looks like that."

"Oh, wait don't you mean Riko-chan?" It had been Mifue who had spoken up as she smiled, "That's gotta be Riko-chan. She's always going around the campus and tending to the plants around the place."

"Riko...?"

The name struck something inside him. Like how he woke up to Mobius being fake.

Familiar...

"She's a first year," Mifue continued, "Riko-chan is pretty quiet, but nice. I don't think I've spoken to her a lot though."

"I see," he nods before Aria slowly floats up to him, "I was only curious...I didn't notice her until recently. Thanks." It ends the conversation and the possible onslaught of questions to his curiosity. Aria gives him a look, but doesn't ask him thankfully as they begin to plan out their next course of action.

Riko...Her name settled in his head and eventually Ritsu found himself standing beside her after the meeting is done. She doesn't notice him and her hands were busy tugging at weeds.

Odd...Why would weeds grow...Wouldn't they not exist? He would think they wouldn't since they could ruin her flowers.

"...I want them to grow here."

Her voice is so quiet, almost identical to Suzuna's if not for the lack of wavering. The girl speaks in a more firm sense that's familiar to him...

"Why?"

She doesn't look at him, but he noticed how her gloved hands are less violent in pulling the weeds. Dirt being pushed away as she wiggles the green leaves to ease them out. No more dirt flying out in all directions to dirty her shoes, "It gives me something to do. It makes the garden worth it."

Her face lifts up and their eyes finally meet.

Gray meets gray.

It makes sense now why she's familiar...

"...Ritsu-nii, don't you remember?"

Now he does.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She was the first one to wake up, and she feels relief to see her big brother here with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I OWN NOTHING pertaining to the game!
> 
> This chapter is set before the first and Ritsu not quite aware of Mobius.

She liked feeling the dirt underneath her fingers. Pressing down and feeling the soil against her hands as she worked. Her hands rough with callouses and dusty, hands that were dirty yet hardened from her work.

To feel grounded is something she wanted. To work to give her a sense that she had something to do.

Her garden was just what she needed, what she truly wanted in this world of false reality. As she worked and tended to her garden, she was ignored by others. Classmates without faces covered in static never looked at her as she hid among her flowers. They paid her no mind and she remained silent about it. As long as she had her garden, she felt safe in this world now lurking with danger if they realized she knew.

Fake...

Why had she even wanted to come here?

Her fingers hurt as she grips and pulls on the weed in front of her, she ignores how it refuses to surrender itself to her tugging and she lets out a hiss when she finally yanks it out. Her palm hurts and fingers feel tender from her skin rubbing so hard against the weed's stem. The feeling disappeared though and she lightly rubbed her hands together as she stared out into her garden.

She remembers being cold....She had left her jacket behind...Riko can only remember walking into the cold and just wanting to feel numb. Cold and wanting to feel nothing, then she was here.

Time passed in an endless repetitive loop. A cycle that she had no way of knowing how many days or months had passed since she came to this world. What if it had been years?

Her only tracking system was her grade.

Who knew how many times she’s been a first year. Riko could only figure that it was plenty considering just hours-or was it a day-ago she was a third year. She stops tugging at the weeds, feeling eyes on her. Riko knows he’s there and she’s glad for it.

What had snapped her out of her oblivious trance of this fake world...

The one person she trusted the most...

It was her big brother. 

Ritsu was her older half brother, and his presence was what woke her up. Her eyes were open when she found him and she was relieved.

She wasn’t alone.

Memories of her real garden with them both lazing about on the back porch. Memories of Ritsu’s piano or his guitar being heard from the open window as she tended her garden. Riko remembers Ritsu holding her close and humming loudly as she shakes from the storm outside. How her big brother played songs for her at random and making her smile.

Riko remembers Ritsu telling her, “Everything will be okay little sis.”

They had each other back home and now they were back together again. She doesn’t feel as alone as when she realized the world was fake.

Riko lifts her head up to see him walk away, “I’ll see you soon...Ritsu-nii.”


End file.
